GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE 3-17-16 Govt Cancels Badger Two Lease

Mar 17, 2016

The Bureau of Land Management signed a final decision Thursday to cancel a 30-year-old oil and gas exploration lease in a remote and wild area of Montana’s Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest where oil and gas leasing has since been banned.

The decision marked the agency’s final word in the decades-long dispute that centered on the exploration’s potential impacts to religious values of the Blackfeet Tribe and the environment.

The lease location is two miles southeast of U.S. Highway 2 and nine miles southwest of East Glacier Park in an area called Badger-Two Medicine, an area sandwiched between Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet Reservation and the Bob Marshall Wilderness where two rivers spill out of the mountains.

The decision, filed in Washington, D.C., was considered a victory by environmental groups and the Blackfeet Tribe who’ve fought oil and gas the development along the rugged Rocky Mountain Front, but Solenex LLC, the lease holder, and the Montana Petroleum Association, said the decision was a bad sign for other lease holders.

“It’s a big day for me,” said John Murray, tribal historic preservation officer for the Blackfeet Tribe.

Badger-Two Medicine was once part of the Blackfeet Tribe’s reservation, but it was ceded to the U.S. government along with other land in 1896.

To the Blackfeet, it is the “Backbone of the World” where they were created, and associated with culturally important spirits, heroes and historic figures central to Blackfeet religion and traditional practices. Today, it’s part of a designated Traditional Cultural District.

“We as a Blackfeet people have existed in that area for thousands of years,” Murray said. “Our world view includes an interactive relationship with the earth and also with certain areas. Every ceremony that we do, that earth spirit is included, and we just don’t think you can take that out.”

Harry Barnes, chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, called the BLM’s decision “reason to rejoice.”

“Today the U.S. Department of Interior has filed action in federal court to start the process of bringing justice to the Blackfeet people,” Barnes said.

Sidney Longwell of Louisiana-based Solenex LLC had held the rights to the lease since the early 1980s.

He referred questions to his attorney, Steve Lechner, who said the government doesn’t have the authority to cancel the lease.

He called the decision a breach of contract.

“They just put every oil and gas lease at risk,” Lechner said. “If you can cancel one oil and gas lease after 32 years what makes any lease safe?”

Solenex is considering whether to challenge the decision, he said.

The decision canceling the lease was signed by Aden Seidlitz, acting state director of the Montana Dakotas Office of the BLM, and Michael Connor, deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior. The BLM is part of the Interior Department.

It criticized past decisions by the BLM, which oversees oil and gas development, and the Forest Service, which manages the land where the proposed exploration is located, for failing to adequately review the impacts of the development on the environment and the tribe’s religious values before the permit was issued, saying bedrock laws protecting the environment and historic properties — the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act — were violated.

The Interior Secretary has the authority to cancel leases that are issued in error and in violation of laws, the decision says.

“We now know that a proper review of cultural resources impacts prior to lease issuance would have disclosed adverse effects to those resources,” the decision says. “The legal violations in the process leading to the issuance of Lease No. MTM53323 make the lease voidable.”

The decision also says the reliance by the agencies on an environmental analysis, rather than a more rigorous environmental impact statement, was illegal.

The 14-page decision concludes by saying the ruling is the final word on the matter by Interior Department, and that any challenge must be brought in federal court.

A total of $31,235 in lease payments will be refunded to Solenex.

Longwell, who wants to explore for natural gas, sued the Interior and Agricultural departments in 2013 arguing the agencies had unreasonably delayed their review of his application for a permit to drill.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a lease 1982.

In 1983, Longwell sought permission to drill an exploratory well on 23 acres to evaluate the oil and gas potential.

“It’s sad day in the United States when a government agency can unilaterally cancel a paid mineral lease especially after numerous approved exploration permits had previously been issued,” said Alan Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association. “The current federal administration is going out of their way to decimate the natural resource industries in this state as well as the nation.”

At a status conference conducted in Longwell’s lawsuit Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon criticized the government for dragging its feet and ordered that a decision be made whether to lift the suspension of the lease.

That decision came Thursday morning.

“Today’s action honors Badger-Two Medicine’s rich cultural and natural resources and recognizes the irreparable impacts that oil and gas development would have on them,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement.

Previously, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), a federal agency, found that the exploratory well, along with full field development, if that occurred, would be so damaging to the Traditional Cultural District that the tribe’s ability to practice its religious and cultural traditions would be lost.

The BLM also considered recommendations from the Forest Service and the ACHP in canceling the lease, Jewell said. In 2015, the ACHP and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the parent agency of the U.S. Forest Service, both recommended that the lease be canceled.

Solenex’s Lechner said the existing lawsuit over the unreasonable delays is not over.

“The judge hasn’t issued a final judgment yet, so that case is still there,” he said. “It’s possible to amend the complaint to challenge this decision if necessary.”

The 130,000-acre Badger-Two Medicine Area is along the northern Rocky Mountain Front, an area where developers and environmental interests have been butting heads over oil and gas development for decades.

It’s so wild the U.S. Forest Service banned motorized travel in 2009. It serves as a wildlife movement corridor for species ranging from grizzly bears to elk.

In 1997, The Forest Service decided not to authorize new land for oil and gas leasing on 356,000 along the Rocky Mountains, including Badger-Two Medicine.

And Congress legislatively withdrew federal lands within the area from mineral development in 2006, providing tax incentives for those holding existing lessees issued in the 1980s.

A total of 29 leases were voluntarily relinquished. That left 18 leases in place today before the government’s decision to cancel the Longwell lease.

Kendall Flint, president of a local conservation group called Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, urged the government to fully acknowledge the importance of the Badger-Two Medicine by canceling the remaining leases.

“Then we can finally start working on solutions for permanently protecting this special place,” Kendall said.

Murray, of the Blackfeet Tribe, said Maria Zedeno, a professor of applied research and anthropology at the University of Arizona, and Mark Bodily, an archaeologist for Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, were “unsung heroes” in the tribe’s efforts to document the significance of the Badger-Two Medicine area to the Blackfeet people and threats of development.

Zedeno did several studies of the area, including interviewing tribal elders.

“She interviewed them in depth,” Murray said. “There was a lot of transporting of elders right out into the Badger-Two Medicine. That’s where the interviews took place.”

And Bodily closely studied that work as the Forest Service considered its position on the potential impacts of oil and gas exploration, Murray said.

Reaction to decision

“Today’s decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior to cancel an oil and gas lease at the doorstep of Glacier National Park reflects the wisdom and leadership demonstrated by the Blackfeet Nation, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Sen. Jon Tester, who took a courageous stand for these irreplaceable wildlands.”

– Theresa Pierno, President and CEO of National Parks Conservation Association

“The Secretary’s decision today is a step in the right direction towards preserving the cultural identity of the Blackfeet people and land that is sacred to their Tribe.”

— Gov. Steve Bullock

“This is a disappointment, but unfortunately, not a surprise. Decades of delays and bureaucratic maneuvering have prevented what we have supported from the start as a lawfully obtained, environmentally vetted lease right to exploration and development. This decision is indicative of the current administration’s treatment of multiple use public lands, wherein access continues to be restricted, development limited, and property rights disregarded.”

— Jessica Sena, spokeswoman, Montana Petroleum Association

“The Badger-Two Medicine has unique cultural, historical, spiritual and recreational significance to the Blackfeet Nation and outdoor enthusiasts in Montana. For generations Blackfeet families and outdoorsmen have enjoyed this treasured place and today’s decision will help ensure that this area remains pristine for years to come. There are special places in this world where we just shouldn’t drill, and the Badger-Two Medicine is one of them.”